On Wed, 24 Apr 1996, Malcolm Dunnachie Thompson wrote:
> Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 16:37:50 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Malcolm Dunnachie Thompson <malcolmt@xxxxxx>
> To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: your mail (Subject & Power...)
>
> Hi.
>
> "A whiner and ineffectual"? Ouch. That hurts.
>
> I'm not saying that Eurocentrism and racism are necessarily equivalent
> terms. But to postulate as universal a phenomenon as "the human
> condition" as the (or even an) object in Foucault, when, after all, he
> only ever really talked about Europe, is to perform quite a dazzling
> erasure. The complex cultural dynamics that Foucault investigated do
> *not* apply to everyone everywhere - they only apply to specific people.
> And to claim that these specific people (Europeans and, to a lesser
> extent, North Americans) are, in fact, everybody (for this is what the
> term "human condition" does) is racist. Racist because it takes Europe as
> a symbolic stand-in for the whole world. Racist because what happens in
> Europe defines "the human condition". One should not be so quick to
> assume that one can speak for everybody, or that a particular oeuvre
> takes everybody as its object.
>
> And, in the modern world, for all intents and purposes, colonialism *is*
> a very European phenomenon. All too often, I've heard people say things
> like: "Other people besides Europeans practice colonialism, you know?"
> (By these "other people", of course, they mean Africans, or Asians.) To
> which the appropriate response is: "So?" If you mean that, before the
> spread of European colonialism in the 18th century, other people did
> things that sure look like colonialism, my resposne is: how is this at
> all relevant? In fact, this is totally irrelevant except as a rhetorical
> move to deflect attention away from Europe as the primary perpetrator of
> colonialism. Only a move a guilt-racked European would make.
>
> If, on the other hand, you mean that *today*, other powers besides
> Western powers (I apologize if I'm collapsing European and Western, but I
> haven't the energy to justify myself on this point) practice colonialism,
> then name one instance of colonialism that isn't supported and
> orchestrated by some Western power or other, that hasn't come to be used
> by Western powers in their own interests.
>
> Hugs and smooches.
>
> malcolm
>
>
Guilt-racked European-American responds:
One instance of colonialism that was not supported by some Western power
is Japan and its lurid historical relationship with China. You only
asked for one and you asked for a contemporary instance (*today*). I
can't vouch for how contemporary this is for you. You are correct in
saying that colonialism is something Europe raised to an art-form, but
what you are collapsing is Europeanism and colonialism. Eurocentrism is
no better nor worse than any ethnocentrism when it comes to exclusion.
Centrism relies on exclusion. What is not relevant is silence or
euphemizing a generalization such as "the human condition."
P.R. Van Leunen
"Dutch." The worst kind of European-American. . .Hugs and smooches
returned two-fold.
> Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 16:37:50 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Malcolm Dunnachie Thompson <malcolmt@xxxxxx>
> To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: your mail (Subject & Power...)
>
> Hi.
>
> "A whiner and ineffectual"? Ouch. That hurts.
>
> I'm not saying that Eurocentrism and racism are necessarily equivalent
> terms. But to postulate as universal a phenomenon as "the human
> condition" as the (or even an) object in Foucault, when, after all, he
> only ever really talked about Europe, is to perform quite a dazzling
> erasure. The complex cultural dynamics that Foucault investigated do
> *not* apply to everyone everywhere - they only apply to specific people.
> And to claim that these specific people (Europeans and, to a lesser
> extent, North Americans) are, in fact, everybody (for this is what the
> term "human condition" does) is racist. Racist because it takes Europe as
> a symbolic stand-in for the whole world. Racist because what happens in
> Europe defines "the human condition". One should not be so quick to
> assume that one can speak for everybody, or that a particular oeuvre
> takes everybody as its object.
>
> And, in the modern world, for all intents and purposes, colonialism *is*
> a very European phenomenon. All too often, I've heard people say things
> like: "Other people besides Europeans practice colonialism, you know?"
> (By these "other people", of course, they mean Africans, or Asians.) To
> which the appropriate response is: "So?" If you mean that, before the
> spread of European colonialism in the 18th century, other people did
> things that sure look like colonialism, my resposne is: how is this at
> all relevant? In fact, this is totally irrelevant except as a rhetorical
> move to deflect attention away from Europe as the primary perpetrator of
> colonialism. Only a move a guilt-racked European would make.
>
> If, on the other hand, you mean that *today*, other powers besides
> Western powers (I apologize if I'm collapsing European and Western, but I
> haven't the energy to justify myself on this point) practice colonialism,
> then name one instance of colonialism that isn't supported and
> orchestrated by some Western power or other, that hasn't come to be used
> by Western powers in their own interests.
>
> Hugs and smooches.
>
> malcolm
>
>
Guilt-racked European-American responds:
One instance of colonialism that was not supported by some Western power
is Japan and its lurid historical relationship with China. You only
asked for one and you asked for a contemporary instance (*today*). I
can't vouch for how contemporary this is for you. You are correct in
saying that colonialism is something Europe raised to an art-form, but
what you are collapsing is Europeanism and colonialism. Eurocentrism is
no better nor worse than any ethnocentrism when it comes to exclusion.
Centrism relies on exclusion. What is not relevant is silence or
euphemizing a generalization such as "the human condition."
P.R. Van Leunen
"Dutch." The worst kind of European-American. . .Hugs and smooches
returned two-fold.